Chapter 9
Hermione and Luna

Still Friday evening, 21 September 1990
Still outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour

A nonmagical family just had sat down at the only empty table, which was next to where Sirius, Remus and Harry were sitting. Clearly the three in the nonmagical family (two adults and a girl who was Harry's age) just had come from Flourish & Blotts, the bookshop.

The girl had uncontrollable brown hair and her upper front teeth were too big; she was not "pretty." Yet Harry felt drawn to her.

The girl said to her parents, "I can't wait to start reading Hogwarts: A History. I'm sure I'll find it fascinating!"

Harry smiled at her. "I've read my Uncle Arcturus's copy, and it's brilliant. Wait till you read about all the portraits in the castle—they all talk, and most of them are hundreds of years old." Then Harry added before he caught himself, "I'm Harry. Harry Potter."

The girl didn't react to his 'famous' name as she replied, "I'm Hermione Granger. Pleased to meet you, Harry."

Hermione smiled at Harry, who smiled back.

After shaking hands, the children introduced their respective adults.

Emma Granger informed Harry, Sirius and Remus, "This is all new to us. Two days ago, on Hermione's eleventh birthday, we were visited by Professor McGonagall from Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall drew her wand, then did the impossible and turned our end table into a pig and back again. Yesterday, Professor McGonagall brought us here and we bought the things Hermione will need at Hogwarts."

"Except my wand," Hermione said with an huff. "And she wouldn't let me spend enough time in the bookshop."

Dan Granger said, "So today we came back to hit the bookshop again, but I gave Hermione a one-hour limit."

Emma Granger laughed. "Before these next seven years are done, our daughter singlehandedly will enable Flourish & Blotts to flourish."

Hermione stuck her tongue out at her mother. Then she turned to Harry. "Harry, you make me want to go to Hogwarts right now and talk with the portraits."

This almost sounded like a compliment, to which Harry still was not accustomed. Harry said, "Speaking of magical paintings, the ceiling in the Great Hall—that's the huge room where everyone eats—is painted, not glass, but it's enchanted to look like the sky above."

Hermione smiled at Harry. "Something else you read about in Hogwarts: A History?"

Harry, whilst only barely thinking about what he was doing, stood up just enough to lift his bum off the chair; then he grabbed the arms of the chair and spun the chair round till the chair was facing Hermione. With this done, Harry dropped down onto the chair, then turned his body so that he, not only the chair, was facing Hermione.

Hermione unthinkingly mimicked this with her own chair and her own body, only a second after Harry. Now the two children were fully facing each other and were fully excluding the four adults.

Fifteen minutes later

Sirius watched with amazement, what was happening between his godson and the girl Hermione.

Sirius remembered toddler-Harry, an happy and trusting child. Merlin, always-smiling toddler-Harry even had trusted Wormtail and Dumbledore! But that Harry had died with James and Lily. Four months ago on Wills-Reading Day, Sirius had met a scared Harry who was convinced that soon he would be beaten and would be sent away.

Even now, months after Sirius's botch-up, whenever Harry did something to disappoint Sirius, Remus or Arcturus, Harry cringed, even if only for a second, showing fear that he causing disappointment would lead to beatings and being sent away.

But minutes ago, when the girl Hermione had asked Harry, "Have you ever read Lord of the Rings?" and Harry had said "No," Sirius had expected Harry to cringe again. Instead, Harry had said with an open, trusting face, "If you like it, I bet it's good. Tell me about it." Which Hermione now was doing—at length.

Sirius knew much about flirting. Harry was not flirting per se with Hermione; neither was Hermione flirting, as such, with Harry. Instead, each child was treating the other as the most fascinating person in the world.

Sirius had talked to many girls at Hogwarts who had fancied him and had wanted to kiss him, and he had talked to some witches who had made it clear from the start that they had wanted to join Sirius in a broom cupboard; but never had Sirius talked to a witch who was keen to know Sirius the person. At the moment, Sirius was envying his godson.

After another fifteen minutes

Dan Granger watched with amazement, what was happening between his only daughter and the boy Harry.

Hermione was bullied at school, and by her cousin Beverly. Hermione no longer initiated conversation with children her own age. When Hermione was dragged into being near other children, Hermione either was quiet and timid, or she was a bossy know-it-all.

But when Hermione had told Harry about Lord of the Rings, her attitude had not been You better know this!, but rather I love Tolkien, and I hope you'll love him too!

Now Harry was explaining to Hermione how to cook a cheese toastie (grilled-cheese sandwich). Dan was alarmed at Harry's anger when he had said, "I hate cooking for ungrateful people." Harry's anger, Harry's surrogate fathers' matching anger, and Harry's casual mention earlier about being "twice orphaned," made Dan suspect that the adults who had been Harry's supposed parents after his actual parents had died, with they themselves eventually dying, had been abusive to Harry.

But the actual teaching of how to cook a cheese toastie, this made Dan happy. Before today, cooking was one of the few sorts of knowledge that Hermione was not keen to know. But that was yesterday; today Hermione hung on every word Harry said and asked interested questions. ("What happens if you don't cook the toastie long enough?")

Dan almost fell out of his chair when Hermione gushed, "Cooking cheese toasties sounds so interesting when you talk about it, Harry!"

Dan thought, A cheese toastie is "interesting"?

Two hours later

The children's bowls of ice cream had melted into sweet-tasting, thick cream, but only the adults noticed this. The children themselves had barely touched their ice creams during their entire conversation.

It was not Harry who ended their conversation, nor was it Hermione. The ender of Harry's and Hermione's hours-long conversation was Florean Fortescue who, with a pleased smile, told the two tables that, whilst he was more pleased than he could say to witness something so exceptional, now it was late, he was closing, and they all had to leave.

At this point, Sirius and Remus taught the Grangers how to receive and to send mail with a postal owl. The owl in question would be Sirius's owl Nocturnus.

Remus slapped Harry on the back and said, "When you sat down to eat ice cream with us, lad, who knew that you'd wind up being taught algebra!"

Harry smiled at Hermione. "When Hermione talks about algebra, it's fascinating."

Grinning Hermione ran over to Harry and hugged him. Harry decided that Hermione's hugs were better than Tonks's.

As the six people headed towards the wall that magically would become the archway that would allow the six to enter the Leaky Cauldron, Sirius said to Hermione, "You didn't know about the magical world, or magical schooling, till two days ago. You're probably feeling way behind the magically-raised kids your age, and are desperate to catch up. Yes?"

Hermione nodded so vigourously, her bushy hair went everywhere.

Sirius said, "But the fact is, magically-raised magical kids take magic for granted, which makes most of them lazy. What I already knew when I came to Hogwarts wasn't much. Meanwhile, Harry's mother Lily didn't find out about the magical world till her eleventh birthday, just like you, but she was a genius, just like it's clear you're a genius. On 1 September 1971, Lily walked into Hogwarts knowing less than most of her magically-raised yearmates; but by Christmas of 1971, she'd caught up to half of them. By third year, Lily had everyone else in her year, both the magical-raised and the Muggle-raised, eating her dust. Most of her Pureblood yearmates hated this—but James and I, we thought a Muggle-born topping the list for our year was hilarious."

To Sirius's shock, Hermione hugged him whilst she said, "Thank you for telling me this!"

Remus said, "Hermione, you wouldn't know this till you read books on magical history, and we definitely didn't want to tell you earlier tonight, but Harry here is famous in the magical world. Everyone thinks he did something brilliant on Halloween night in 1981, when he was fifteen months old."

Sirius saw that all three Grangers looked gobsmacked.

Remus continued, "And whilst Harry is a quite unusual wizard with quite a lot of magical power, the three of us don't think it's so much the case that toddler-Harry did something extraordinary, but that his Muggle-born genius mother Lily did something extraordinary first. Hermione, if Lily were alive today, I'm sure that you and she instantly would become the best of friends."

Now it was Remus who received a fierce hug from happy Hermione.

A minute later

The plan had been simple, Sirius had thought: Walk the Granger family to and through the Leaky Cauldron to Charing Cross Road, then he, Remus and Harry would reenter the Leaky, then reenter Diagon Alley. They would walk to the Apparation square; from there, Sirius would Side-Along Apparate Harry to Black Manor. Remus would Apparate to Black Manor a second later.

This was the plan, but the plan got rubbished when the six people approached from the Diagon Alley side, the wall-slash-archway that was behind the Leaky Cauldron. There the six people found blond Pandora Brown and her blond daughter waiting for them. The two blondes were sitting in conjured chairs.

The girl, who was slightly younger than Harry, strongly resembled Pandora Brown. Which meant, Sirius reasoned, that Pandora Brown had to be married now.

"Miss Brown," Sirius said, "what's going on?"

Pandora stood up. "It's actually Pandora Lovegood now; I married Xenophilius. As for why we're here, I'm not sure. Our daughter Luna"—Pandora gestured towards the girl—"insisted that she and I come here by seven in the evening, and insisted that we wait here for two children her age to walk up to us." Pandora looked at Harry and at Hermione. "I'm guessing Luna means you two?"

The now-named blond girl, Luna, stood up and curtseyed to the children her age. She said in a dreamy voice, "Good evening, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. I'm so glad I could meet you at the start of your journey together."

Sirius heard Dan Granger mutter, "Bloody hell."

Sirius said to Pandora Lovegood, "Truthfully, Pandora, I have no idea what to say now. Is your Luna a Seer?"

Pandora eyed Sirius and Remus; she also eyed the Granger parents. "Luna sometimes says things she can't possibly know, yet she knows them; and sometimes she refers to the future. But so far, every strange thing she ever has said has been true."

Then Luna looked at her mother and said, "Sometimes I see the future but don't speak it. Mummy, it'll be years before I tell you why you and I had to come here by 7pm, when it's now almost 10pm that we actually meet Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

Pandora smiled at her daughter. "I was planning on spending this evening experimenting with new spells, but talking with you for three hours is brilliant too. And wouldn't you know it, whilst I was talking to you, I realised that my Hlovbhervus spell had a flaw in the design. Who knows what would have happened if I'd cast that spell tonight with its flawed Arithmancy! So I'm doubly glad I came here with you tonight, Moon Blossom."

Luna looked at Harry and said, "You can see thestrals now, but it shall be years before I can see them. A tiny part of me is disappointed; thestrals are such gentle creatures.

"It will be years before I see you next, Harry Potter, because I'm not permitted to attend the magical school that you'll attend."

Sirius saw Hermione send Harry a puzzled look.

Luna continued, "But Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, I shall see both of you again, two years from now when I'm an Hogwarts firstie, at the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor Quidditch game."

Sirius wondered who would be the Gryffindor, Hermione or Luna, and who would be the Ravenclaw. Admittedly Sirius did not know Luna even slightly, so could not guess her Sorting.

(How did the Hat Sort a Seer, anyway?)

On the other hand, Sirius could not imagine Hermione being Sorted into the red-and-gold House of the adventurous, whereas Hermione's love of scholarship was obvious.

Now Pandora looked at Luna and said, "Young lady, now you've met Mr Potter and Miss Granger as you wished, and now it's past their bedtimes and it's certainly past yours! So say goodnight, then we're going home."

Luna said goodnight to Harry and Hermione with a dreamy voice, whilst she again curtseyed to the two other children. (In reply, Hermione curtseyed to Luna; two seconds later, Harry bowed to Luna.) Then Pandora led Luna to the Apparation square for Diagon Alley.

A minute later, Sirius, Remus, Harry and the Grangers were standing in front of the record shop on Charing Cross Road, which was next to the Leaky Cauldron, which the Granger parents no longer could see.

Dan Granger asked, "That young girl, is she," he paused, "well?"

Sirius looked about, and saw that the nearest Muggle was a block away. So Sirius was free to reply—

"Can Luna truly see the future in some way that Harry, Hermione, Remus and I cannot? Probably. Amongst magical people as a whole are people with quite rare but quite strange gifts. My cousin's seventeen-year-old daughter can shape-shift, within limits. She can't look like Harry or Hermione yet, they're too small, but she can look like any of us four adults. When a snake hisses, Harry hears it as English; when Harry replies in what he thinks is English, you or I hear hissing. No snake is a danger to Harry, or to Harry's friends and family."

"Oh, wow," said Hermione. She gave Harry another hug. Harry looked gobsmacked.

Then Hermione looked at Harry and asked, "Why did Luna say she isn't permitted to attend the magical school that you'll attend, then a few sentences later, she talked about being an Hogwarts firstie in two years? Is she banned from Hogwarts for some odd reason, but two years from now, her ban will be lifted?"

Emma said, "Luna looks nine years old. Next year when you two go to Hogwarts, she'll still be underage and not permitted to attend your school. I'm sure this is what she meant."

Harry, blushing red, said, "Erm, Hermione, may I answer your question in my first owl-letter to you?"

Once the three wizards were back at Black Manor

Sirius waited till Harry was in bed—

—but not necessarily asleep, because Harry was dancing-on-the-ceiling happy—

—then Sirius poured two fingers' worth of firewhisky into glasses for Remus and himself.

"What do you think, Moony?" Sirius asked. "Harry and Hermione, soulmates?"

"Soulmates for sure," Remus replied.
"Hopefully it'll be years before they kiss."

Both men drank deeply.

Sirius said, "Bugger, and I was much looking forwards to giving Harry the 'How to Chat Up Beautiful Birds' talk."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Do not get your hopes up with Luna; she shall not play a big part in this story. But I could not stomach setting my story in 1990 and not rescuing Luna's mum.